'Finance guys' steer MoJack to growth of 500 percent

In the three years since Dan Drake and Nate Gregory bought MoJack Distributors, which sells riding lawn mower lifts, the company has grown dramatically.

In January, the company bought the former Linens 'n Things building at 3535 N. Rock Road. It needed the 86,000 square feet for warehouse space.

When they bought the business, the company was selling a few hundred units a year. Today, they sell tens of thousands to Home Depot, Tractor Supply and about 1,000 independent dealers.

The two came into the business by chance.

Drake, MoJack's chairman, grew up in the southeast Kansas town of Atlanta.

A group of farmers there were building a device that lifts the front end of a riding lawn mower to make it easier to service.

Drake ran into the inventor of the device at a local Atlanta cafe. The two had breakfast.

After a lot of research into the market, the two bought the business in 2007.

They did not release sales figures but said the company grew 500 percent last year over 2009. They expect similar growth in 2011.

Drake's background is in real estate and finance. He earned a degree in business and a master's of business administration from the University of Kansas.

After college, Drake, 39, cofounded a Kansas City hedge fund, Jayhawk Capital. He then became partner in a hedge fund in Colorado and started in the real estate business in Wichita.

Gregory, 30, grew up in Valley Center and earned a degree in accounting and finance from Fort Hays State University.

After college, he worked as a CPA for Grant Thornton in Wichita. Eventually, he went to work for Drake in the real estate business.

"Neither of us come from a manufacturing or selling background," Drake said. "We're finance guys. We had to figure every aspect of this business out the hard way. As we've grown, it's been fun. But it's challenging."

They have a sense of humor about their entrance into the wholesale business.

"Nate and I joke we should have paid more attention in marketing class," Drake said.

Getting a product on the shelves of national retailers was also a challenge.

"We started with an entirely new product with no shelf space at the retailers," Drake said. "Taking real estate in those big box stores is a challenge."

In March 2009, the company hired a national sales manager, which gave it a big boost. It launched a national TV advertising campaign this spring.

Investing money in the business at a time when the country was in a recession was risky, Drake said.

"That was a tough decision to make," Drake said. "We took a chance."

Sales eventually will stabilize in the mower lift product line, they said. In the future, the two want to add lawn and garden products to their product lines.

This story was originally published April 21, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "'Finance guys' steer MoJack to growth of 500 percent."